Left Coast Writers Poetry: Aleta George, Author of Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli 734 La Playa St, San Francisco, CA 94121 Sunday, April 2nd from 5pm-7:15pm Join a featured LCW poet at the First Sunday of the Month Happy Hour Poetry series at Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli. Our featured poet’s reading is followed by an open mic for other poets to share original work, or even just to read favorite poems aloud. Happy Hour starts at 5pm, and after our featured poet reads for 30 minutes, open mic (three minutes per poet) goes until 7:15 pm. Celebrate creativity and poets while supporting a local, community-oriented, and family owned business! Enjoy $1 off your sandwich with the purchase of a glass of wine or bubbly! Up in April is Aleta George. She’ll be sharing the work of Ina Coolbrith, California’s First Poet Laureate Aleta George is the author of the award-winning biography, Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate. She has written for Smithsonian, High Country News, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is currently the open space reporter for the Bay Area Monitor, a publication of the League of Women Voters. She will be reading some of Ina Coolbrith’s poetry for this event.

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Clive Matson, Author of Let the Crazy Child Write Monday, April 2nd, 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive || www.bookpassage.com In April we’ll be celebrating National Poetry Month with a number of poetry focused events. National Poetry Month was created in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets to promote poetry and its importance in American culture and history. We begin our National Poetry Month series with a salon featuring poet and writing coach Clive Matson. Clive Matson (MFA Columbia University) has been a published poet since 1964 and has been a writing coach for many Bay Area novelists, among them Deborah Janke, Willie Gordon, Isa Maynard, Phillip Wilhite, Laura Glenn Luis, and Joe Quirk. His early teachers were the Beats in New York City, and among his published works are Mainline to the Heart(1966), Equal in Desire (1983), Chalcedony’s First Ten Songs (2007), and Chalcedony’s Second Ten Songs (2009). Over the years he has become more and more immersed in the stream of passionate intensity that runs through us all. That intensity is one standard for fine writing, according to his 1998 text Let the Crazy Child Write!, which he uses as a model for his writing classes. Clive enjoys playing basketball, table tennis, and collecting minerals in the field. He lives in Oakland, California, where he helps bring up his young teenage son, Ezra, and facilitates WOW (Writing Occupy Workshop). Visit Clive at www.matsonpoet.com We’ll look forward to seeing you all there!

NEW HOST FOR LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA EVENTS Many of you know Elaine Miller Bond, author illustrator of Affimals: Affirmations + Animals. Left Coast Writers is pleased to announce that Elaine will be hosting the Left Coast Writers Ferry Plaza Book Party and Reading series at Book Passage in San Francisco beginning in April. Many thanks to Colette Obrien, our terrific prior emcee. We hope she’ll return to host future events from time to time. Elaine will be emceeing the April Book Party featuring poet Dave Seter, author of Night Duty. Monday, April 12, 2009 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com Elaine Miller Bond is the author/illustrator of the book, Affimals: Affirmations + Animals, published in 2009. She took her graduate degree from Cambridge University, England and began her career as a science writer with the University of California Natural Reserve System. Her writing and photography have appeared on the Discovery Channel and in The American Naturalist, The Washington Post, and other popular and scientific media. Her photographs of rare Utah prairie dogs and their behaviors will be published in the upcoming books, Prairie Dogs with White Tails by Dr. John L. Hoogland and Squirrels of the World by Dr. John L. Koprowski. She currently makes her home in California’s San Francisco Bay Area.

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Dave Seter, author of Night Duty Monday, April 12, 2010 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com National Poetry Month gives us an opportunity to celebrate another new poet! Born in Chicago, the author has lived on both coasts, and currently resides in Sonoma County. He studied creative writing at Princeton University, where he earned his degree in civil engineering. The title poem of the collection was inspired by the author’s first job out of college. As a field engineer, he responded to gas fires and explosions after hours, in the urban center of Newark, New Jersey. The author explains, “That’s where I saw the underworld leak with flame, and where I learned the only ‘boss’ I could stand was Bruce Springsteen.” This chapbook is the author’s first published collection of poetry.

Monday, April 5, 2010 || 7pm || Neeli Cherkovski, Author of From the Canyon Outward Book Passage – Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. In honor of National Poetry Month, our April Left Coast Literary Salon Presenter is poet Neeli Chekovski.